The environmental conditions (e.g., air flow, temperature, humidity, etc.) within energy intensive facilities like data centers, telecommunications centers, clean rooms, and hospitals must frequently be strictly regulated in order to maintain productivity and reliable operability. In the past, much of this environmental regulation has been accomplished solely through air conditioning. Nevertheless, as energy prices and the heat generated by equipment have continued to increase, there has been a trend towards using outside air to aid in cooling buildings containing these types of facilities.
An “air-side economizer system” may serve as a control mechanism to regulate the use of outside air for cooling a building. Such an economizer system utilizes an arrangement of sensors, ducts, and dampers to allow an appropriate volume of outside air to enter a building and aid in cooling. The sensors measure the outside and inside air conditions. If outside conditions are suitable for cooling, the economizer system adjusts its dampers to introduce the outside air into the space. This, in turn, may reduce the need for air conditioning, which may result in significant energy savings.
Nevertheless, using outside air to cool energy intensive facilities is not without issues. Using outside air to cool a building may introduce gaseous or particulate contamination into that building, which may have an adverse effect on electronic components, circuits, and other sensitive systems. Under some environmental conditions, for example, dust deposited on electronic parts or corrosion of metal components may occur at a rate high enough to contribute to the premature failure of these systems.